


The Serpent With Two Heads

by Ruusverd



Series: Echoes of the Fall AU [6]
Category: Echoes of the Fall - Adrian Tchaikovsky, Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: 1.5k of snake people yelling at each other, Bronze Age, Gen, Sort Of, Thanedd, shapeshifter AU, that's where they're heading anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25804642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruusverd/pseuds/Ruusverd
Summary: Emhyr has a plan. The Snake priests can't reach a consensus about this plan, except that it's certainly... something. Yen has no time for all their drama, she's got a wolf and his cub to find.
Series: Echoes of the Fall AU [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863010
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	The Serpent With Two Heads

**Author's Note:**

> I'm extrapolating a tiny bit beyond book-canon on the world-building here as regards Emhyr's Most Excellent Plan, but the Elder Blood thing in the Witcher books is about 90% BS so I'm not going to overthink it. The part about the Plague People is the canon backstory for this world, so I don't think my headcanons are too outlandish. Any major holes in Emhyr's theory may thus be attributed to him being a moron with a god complex bent on world domination, as every version of Emhyr tends to be. ;)
> 
> The Snake priests generally claim to be repeating what the Snake told them when they take a political stance, so if the priesthood becomes divided everyone says the Snake must have two heads and each mouth says something different.

Yennefer gratefully entered the temple, glad to be back in Atahlan after a miserable few months in the estuaries. Some of her kin may enjoy slogging around in swamps, but she did not. Her journey had been wasted, but in this case she was glad. Reports of the Rat cult popping up among the poorer peoples of the Nation always had to be taken seriously, but fortunately so far the majority of the reports turned out to be fabricated. The fact that any at all had been confirmed was alarming, no matter how quickly and harshly they’d been stamped out. The rise of the Rat always heralded the fall of the people, after all.

 _Just another sign of_ _our beloved_ _Kasra’s ineptitude,_ she thought angrily. _He thinks his kingdom is_ _growing_ _because he can add another name to the list of tribes who owe him fealty, or because_ _lines on a map tell him he controls more land_ _. Meanwhile_ _the Nation rots from_ _the inside_ _as his_ _constant_ _war_ _ring_ _drive_ _s_ _the_ _people to desperation and despair,_ _the perfect feeding ground for the Rat. We’ll all end up_ _as dead as the Old Stone Kingdom_ _if something isn’t done._

She headed straight for her own quarters, but was distracted by the sound of shouting from one of the common areas. Such a sound was not common within the walls of the Serpent’s stronghold. She detoured to investigate what had her kin in such an unusual temper.

“I tell you it is abomination! An affront to the gods! Emhyr Kasra has gone too far, he _must_ be removed!” Eilhart Chac Phili shouted to an assembled group of the Serpent’s priests. She was currently a tall woman just entering middle age, but in truth she was one of the oldest people in the room.

“We don’t have the authority to remove the Kasra directly,” Tissaia Essen Vries countered. She was also far older than her form would indicate, though she appeared to be a young woman barely out of adolescence. “We can only influence the River Lords for or against him. If we incite them to overthrow the reigning Kasra for the third time in two generations it would lead to instability, perhaps complete anarchy.”

“We’re already dangerously unstable as it is,” Yennefer inserted herself into the debate, “Or I wouldn’t have spent the last few months dragging myself through muddy swamps chasing rumors of the Rat.”

“These things are known: there are always rumors of the Rat,” Vilgefortz Chac Roggeveen said dismissively, “They always turn out to be false or exaggerated. The important matter is that the strength of the Sun River Nation is the strength of the Snake, and Emhyr Kasra is doing more to build that strength than any of his predecessors for generations.” 

Vilgefortz’s body was that of a fairly  handsome man  in his prime .  T hough he too was older than he appeared, he was far younger than  either Eilhart o r Tissaia. Perhaps even younger than Yennefer herself, but she wasn’t sure  of his exact age.  Or her own. The Snake didn’t keep track of things like that. When your elders couldn’t even remember how many lives they’d lived, the  number of years since  one’s birth hardly seemed important.

“The Old Stone Kingdom was a strong city as well, perhaps even more impressive than Atahlan,” Tissaia said, “Until it was devoured from within by the Rat cult. Now no one can so much as set foot in the ruins without feeling the curse, and what remains of the Stone People serve the River Lords.”

V ilgefortz glared at her, “Which side of this are you on, or are you just disagreeing with both of us on principle?”

“I think you are both equally wrong, and acting like children besides. These things are known: each of you is as bad as the other.” Tissaia informed him blandly.

“And what will that advancement be worth if he brings the wrath of the gods down on us with his unbridled ambition?” Eilhart demanded, ignoring Tissaia.

“Why should we discourage his ambition?” Vilgefortz shouted back, “Look what we have built here! The Sun River Nation can feed twice the number of people on half the land compared to any other place in the world! The people can write, and build cities, and create art instead of spending their lives scrabbling out a pitiful existence once step up from their mute cousins. And it is all because of us, the wisdom the Snake provides. What evil is it to try and bring the whole world up to the same level?”

“I sometimes think we made a mistake,” Tissaia mused, “That we gave the River Lords more knowledge than was wise. Our wondrous cities diminish the need to Step, and indeed make it difficult and inconvenient at times to do so. I think the people of the Nation drift too far from their souls, spending so much time on two feet.”

“I disagree,” Eilhart said heatedly, “The Plague People who destroyed the Other Lands, the greatest civilization that ever existed, didn’t become hollow because they neglected their souls, they became hollow because they tried to make themselves more powerful by hoarding too many souls within themselves, and the gods took away even the souls they had.” She glared at Vilgefortz, “And now that’s exactly what the Kasra is now trying to do again, trying to gather too many souls in the same vessel. That’s an even greater danger than the Rat.”

“He’s what?” Yennefer asked in shock, “What happened while I was away?”

“Emhyr Kasra plans to make a Champion of Champions for the Sun River Nation,” Vilgefortz said proudly. “One who can Step to all the shapes of all the peoples of the world, and unite them around the Daybreak Throne.”

“That’s madness!” Yennefer stared at him in shock, “It’s impossible to do such a thing!”

“It isn’t impossible!” Vilgefortz insisted, “There is a flexibility to Champions that others do not have, there must be in order for them to accommodate both their own soul and the Champion’s together. It has even been known for Champions of the river to have more than one Champion form, three or even four souls all together. If such flexibility could be pushed further… we could unite the world around such a Champion, and recreate the days of the Oldest Land, when there was only one people but with many forms.”

“Until they became hollow monsters and destroyed their world,” Tissaia added dryly.

“It’s the oldest tale that exists,” Eilhart agreed, “Taught to the children of every tribe so that it is never forgotten. The Plague People reached for too much and were stripped of what they had, driven by the emptiness they could never fill and destroying everything they touched trying to regain their lost souls. Our ancestors had to cut us off from the Other Lands forever to escape total destruction at their hands. They are the greatest horror in all of remembered history.”

“How could the Kasra possibly think such a thing would succeed?” Yennefer asked incredulously, “The most adaptive of Champions can’t manage more than three or four souls, and it's extremely rare for them to have more than two.”

“There’s a tribe of the Lion somewhere on the Plains,” Vilgefortz explained, while Eilhart glared daggers at him and Tissaia calmly examined her fingernails, “The ruling line has produced a Champion reliably in every generation for as far back as anyone remembers-”

“Which on the Plains means three or four generations at most,” Tissaia interjected. “And these things are known: Champion souls can’t be inherited, so it means nothing.”

Vilgefortz glared at her. “Emhyr Kasra believes they  _can_ be inherited,  in some hidden way that only shows up sporadically in a family line  when the right bloodlines are crossed .  I’ve seen his reasoning and it seems sound. He believes if a scion of that proven line of Plains Champions were to have a child with a Champion of the River, the child would have the ability to hold almost limitless souls at the same time. If the child were also heir to the Daybreak Throne, they could bring the world into a new age.”

“And I say it’s madness, and it won’t work! At best you have an insane child, at worst we anger the gods and create the Plague People all over again!” Eilhart gestured sharply, “Emhyr _must_ be removed from the throne before this goes any further. Perhaps Tissaia is right and it is overstepping our authority, but these things are known: any limits on our authority in the Sun River Nation are limits we imposed on ourselves. They can and should be set aside in the face of such a threat.”

Yennefer tuned out Vilgefortz’s response, thinking hard.  A larm had been building in the back of her mind ever since Vilgefortz had mentioned a line of Champions of the Lion. Geralt’s  C hild  of Surprise , the mother had been a Champion hadn’t she? And the grandmother, too. It wasn’t unheard of for two members of the same immediate family to be chosen by a Champion, but  neither was it common , no matter what theories the Kasra had concocted.  The girl’s mother was dead, and the grandmother had to be past the age of bearing children. If it was indeed the Xin’trae that the Kasra planned to use in his grand experiment...

“What tribe?” she interjected, breaking into the middle of the shouting match between Vilgefortz and Eilhart. “The tribe of the Lion you were talking about, what tribe is it?”

Eilhart looked at her in surprise, “What does that name matter? It’s just one of many indistinguishable tribes on the Plains all fighting and killing each other. Clearly the more important-”

“ _What. Tribe.”_ Yennefer demanded.

Vilgefortz  huffed impatiently , “They call themselves the Xin’trae, but for once Eilhart and I agree. The Kasra’s already sent a warband to retrieve the youngest of the line, and her birth tribe won’t matter once  we have her here.”

Yennefer turned and left the room without another word, ignoring the shouting that immediately started again. She shouldered her travel bag and marched back out of the temple without ever having made it to her own quarters.  _Geralt always wanted me to go north with him,_ Yennefer thought wryly,  _I suppose now he’_ _ll_ _get his wish._

**Author's Note:**

> And thus Yennefer sets out to rescue our hapless heroes, who I imagine are currently standing in the middle of the savanna with Ciri, looking at each other and saying "Now what?"


End file.
